2 Peter 2:10 Meaning But Chiefly Those Who Walk After

Kāmarāga: Lust for sense pleasure A burning for whatever the eye, tongue, and body can take. Walking after the flesh is that gait exactly: appetite steps out first and the feet come after, the way a dog on a scent goes wherever the smell leads. The walker keeps calling the road his own choosing, though the pull chose it for him at the first turn, and speed gets mistaken for freedom.

Kilesa: Defilement Kilesa is the stain a craving leaves behind in the mind. Lust of defilement puts the smudge inside the wanting itself rather than in the thing wanted: a hand that has been in the coal marks every wall it leans on. Each indulgence darkens the one indulging, so the appetite comes back dirtier than it went out and needs more to feel the same.

Anottappa: No dread of wrongdoing The inner flinch before harm, missing. Not afraid to speak evil reads as nerve from the inside; from outside it looks like brakes failing on a hill while the driver takes the speed for skill. Dread of consequence is what holds most tongues, and once it goes the mouth runs faster than the man behind it, daring anything because nothing seems to answer back.

Māna: Conceit Māna is the mind measuring, me against him. Despising authority and pleasing oneself are one motion: teachers who came in among the churches held every office above them to the yardstick of me, and each one came back short. Deference after that reckoning feels like dishonesty, and a will that has appointed itself the measure becomes the only law the man will keep.

Ariyūpavāda: Reviling the noble ones Abuse aimed at those whose standing is higher than one's own sight can reach. Speaking evil of dignitaries is that injury: the mouth passes sentence on a height it has never stood on, like someone who cannot swim calling the sea shallow. The damage lands hardest on the speaker, since words like these close the very road he would have to walk to see what he is judging.